Chronicling America Rocks. Oh--and Happy Chanukah

Hanukkah starts tonight, so just for giggles, I decided to search "Hanukkah" and "Chanukah" in the Montana newspapers digitized as part of the Library of Congress/National Endowment for the Humanities Chronicling America project.

I found two articles from the Anaconda Standard, both about programs (one in 1897 and one in 1898) put on children by attending the Butte Bnai Israel congregation's religious education program .

Montana is one of the 39 states participating in Chronicling America. Right now, issues from 38 Montana newspapers are online and searchable by key word. Newly available are

• Bozeman Weekly Chronicle, 1887-1888
• Great Falls Daily Tribune, 1919-1922
• Neihart Herald, 1891-1901
• River Press (Fort Benton), 1905-1914 

There will be even more titles available by the end of 2015, including the Dupuyer Acantha (1894–1899), Ekalaka Eagle (1910–1915), (Hamilton) Western News (1900–1910), Whitefish Pilot (1908–1912) and the Wibaux Pioneer (1907–1914).

Want to know more about Chronicling America and ways to use it in the classroom? This post from last March is a good starting point: Searching Chronicling America

EdSITEment, the National Endowment for the Humanities site for educators, also has great resources for using Chronicling America, including tutorials and lesson plans.

For more on Hanukkah, see last year's post, my Favorite Montana Hanukkah Story--and Resources to Teach It.